Head’s ton sets Smith on path to his own, opening wounds old and new for India

Brisbane: A younger man at the peak of his batting powers helps an old sweat find his way back to once familiar territory.

In January 2012, against India at the SCG, Ricky Ponting played in the slipstream of a dominant Michael Clarke to make his first Test hundred in 33 innings. Clarke, then 30, went on to a monumental 329, and there was no doubt he helped kick 37-year-old Ponting along.

Travis Head with Steve Smith.Credit: AP

There was plenty of that about how 30-year-old Travis Head’s latest masterclass in aggression helped Steve Smith rediscover his path to Test centuries after a gap of 24 innings dating back to the Lord’s match last year.

Smith’s struggles in recent times have led to questions about whether, at the age of 35, he still had it in him to make big scores. Those questions have been writ large across the many technical and tactical tweaks he has made already in this series to try to counter Jasprit Bumrah in particular, culminating in a pre-ball movement at the Gabba that was almost crab-like in its exaggeration.

Twelve years ago in the aftermath of his 134, Ponting spoke of similar struggles.

“When you’re going through a lean trot it is amazing how many little things creep into your head, and those little things can sometimes take over and get in the way of what you’re trying to do,” he said.

“I’m a pretty proud person, and the last thing I wanted to do was to finish off my career the way it had been going the last few months. That’s why I’ve worked as hard as I had.”

For a time, the painstaking work in training did not appear to be helping Smith too much. His early deliveries looked frantic as he wrestled with his feet, hands and mind, and he was a thin inside edge away from the plumbest of lbw decisions.

Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne all fell for low scores to make things look still more challenging, although there was a silver lining to their desperate fights for survival.

By the time Head joined Smith in the middle of the Gabba, the Kookaburra ball was more than 33 overs old after the top three absorbed 158 balls between them. While Australia had only a meagre 75 runs on the board, those overs meant that batting was finally starting to get easier – the ideal time for Head to pounce on an opponent becoming weary.

Steve Smith reaches his century.Credit: AP

Of Head’s nine Test hundreds, seven have now come when he arrives at the crease after 20 overs or more. It’s true that two centuries have come from earlier starts, in Canberra in 2019 and Hobart in 2022, but that outcome is far less likely when the red ball is still swinging or seaming.

Immediately, Head was looking to score, raising the Australian scoring rate and allowing Smith to build into his innings. It was a struggle for long periods: per the ABC statistician Ric Finlay, Smith’s straight drive off Aakash Deep was his first authentically struck boundary of the series, after 163 balls of grope and graft.

Chances for Smith to shine became more frequent as India fell into a now familiar pattern against Head. They are scrambled by his outstanding ability to hit good balls to the boundary – especially by cutting and forcing deliveries that most players would defend or leave. On and outside off stump against pace, since his 2021 renaissance, Head averages nearly 80.

Other countries, notably England, have managed to corral Head somewhat by bowling short. Rohit Sharma certainly set those fields at times with fine leg and square leg back, but his bowlers could not stick rigorously enough to the areas required of them.

And the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja, so treacherous in India, looked flat and nonthreatening in conditions where batters must be beaten in the air as well as off the pitch. Jadeja will have to make runs in this game to justify his place.

Head’s hundred arrived just before tea with an air of exhilaration for the crowd of 34,227 (making it 64,372 over the first two days, shattering the previous record for an Australia v India Test) but also inevitability. The “Universe Boss” celebration, with Head’s helmet atop his bat, started as a bit of an in-joke, but for India it is now a very real signal of one player’s authority over them.

Smith was never as fluent as Head, but found some of his very best form as he closed on three figures, driving beautifully down the ground to reach 99 and then flicking Bumrah around the corner for three figures next ball.

Travis Head celebrates his century in now familiar style with Steve Smith.Credit: Getty Images

Ponting’s 2012 century arrived with a scrambled single that ended with him sprawled on the turf and sporting a very dirty shirt when he finally got up to raise his bat.

Smith’s celebration was neater, but welcomed with an equally high degree of emotion from spectators who once came to the ground expecting, rather than hoping, for three figures from him.

Bumrah and the new ball ultimately brought an end to the innings of both Smith and Head, but only after a stand worth 241 from 302 blistering balls. Alex Carey followed their example to push Australia beyond 400 with three days’ play remaining.

For Smith, there is now hope for a second wind.

It will come more often and more easily should he get further opportunities to bat with Head in this series and beyond. Ponting and Clarke, by the way, followed their SCG stand with an even bigger one later in the same series.

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